Elizabeth Weintraub • Sacramento Short Sale Agent • Land Park

I received something in my email today that made my jaw drop open. Enough to make me eat a bug, if one was flying around.

The more I stared at it, the more I began to wonder if there is perhaps a medical marijuana facility located somewhere near the California Association of REALTORS. Maybe a place where C.A.R. employees go after lunch to unwind?

C.A.R. has just announced a new REALTOR® Badge.

In case you were about to mix it up with some other type of website icon, C.A.R. clearly wrote on it: REALTOR® Badge, so you won't confuse it with something else. Like a Beaver Badge. Or a Mushroom Badge. Everybody will know exactly what it is. And you can put it on your website to proudly announce to the world that you, in fact, own a REALTOR® Badge.

The only thing missing is a pair of speedos and a red cape.

Thank you, C.A.R. This is definitely a trippy little icon for us REALTORS®

A client implied a few days ago that I have other sources of income primarily because I am a real estate broker. It occurred to me how little the public knows about the real estate profession. They talk to friends who feed them misinformation. Being a real estate broker means I am held to a higher standard of knowledge, which can result in a higher level of personal liability, actually. But it doesn't equate to a higher commission check. I still work for Lyon Real Estate, which has its own broker.

Moreover, sometimes sellers think that we real estate agents have a magic wand for selling their home. That we are going to do something special, out-of-the-ordinary or spectacular like fly the Goodyear blimp over their home and drop ch-ch-ch-cherry bombs or give away a free BMW. They figure we know just what to say to make that buyer whip out the checkbook and write an earnest money deposit.

The truth is buyers do whatever the heck they want to do. And I'm seeing a lot of them pause and reflect before writing an offer, which is excellent news. Impulsive purchases can lead to buyer's remorse and cold feet.

A few months ago, I'd receive offers from buyers before I even noticed their agent had shown them the home. I try to check MLS every night to follow up on my listings. Now, I see offers coming in a few days after a showing. So, either buyers are looking at more homes before making an offer or they are taking their time to consider which home they want to buy.

When I put a home on the market, I would like to kid myself that it's my carefully crafted description of the home that is motivating a buyer to go see it. However, we all know it's the photos. Because you can't sell a home online. The only thing a listing agent is doing by putting a listing on the online is motivating a buyer to want to see that home. You can't sell a home if you can't get a buyer inside of it. Photos entice a buyer. Photos tell a story. Photos speak a 1000 words. Photos deliver a message.

One of the things I've been focusing on lately is showing buyers the view from inside out. What can you see outside of the window? What is the view like? If you were standing on the front steps of that home, what do you see? Sometimes it's a picture I want to include in my listings, and sometimes it is not. We've all been there with that buyer who doesn't want to get out of the car when we pull up. Bbbbut that house is brown, and I don't like brown houses . . . whine.

I just listed an unusual condo in the Astoria condominiums in Natomas. It's a 4-story with the master suite located on the top level. It also sits at the back of the development with a view of the greenbelt. It's this location that makes the condo worth its asking price of $130,000. 2580 West El Camino Avenue, #10101, Sacramento, CA 95835 is offered exclusively by Lyon Real Estate as a short sale. For more information, call your Sacramento short sale agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916 233 6759. For a private showing, call Linda Swanson at 916 607 0111.

Photo: Elizabeth Weintraub

People are astonished to hear that I can conduct entire real estate transactions -- most of them Sacramento short sales -- without ever meeting the parties involved. It's not unusual to communicate solely via email, text, websites or fax. I'm connected almost 24/7 through a variety of communication tools. While this may reduce the number of shoes I need to buy and cut down on my dry cleaning bills, it's still kinda weird. I like to shake hands. If appropriate, I hug.

But I'll tell you who I am not hugging. Google. I'm speaking as a client of Google, not the other way around. I signed up for a spam filtering service through Google about a year ago. It didn't work correctly. For whatever reason. I tried for weeks to get through to support at Google without success. Finally, in my frustration, I canceled my account -- just wiped it out.

Then, in October, I received a "no reply" email warning me that Google was about to charge my VISA $12. I tried to sign in to my account, but of course, it no longer exists. In November, I received another "no reply" email. I went in the back door and submitted a work order, filling in the fields for my name, address, email with a sentence asking for help. Received instead a standard work order template and no phone call. I can't email Google; I can't send a letter to Google, and I can't stop the billing.

I received my VISA statement yesterday reflecting that $12 charge. My card expires next summer. Is it really worth the hassle over $12? I thought about this long and hard because it's very difficult to call the bank that has issued my VISA. There is really no human contact unless you're willing to pay the price.

Paying the price means calling the bank, punching in my credit card number, listening to menu options, choosing the correct options, being forced to listen to a commercial for my bank, waiting on hold, and then being put through to a person who promptly disconnects me. So, I call back and go through the whole rigmarole again. If I am not disconnected, I then have the opportunity to ask to be transferred from India to a supervisor in the United States. Then, of course, after repeating all of the information I had previously submitted, she disconnects me.

By the third time, the voice prompter can no longer understand what I am saying. Do you want to make a payment? No, help, help, help. Do you want to hear your options again? Help, help, help. Do you want to buy a Ferrari? Help, help, help. I'm sorry, goodbye.

I speak English. I enunciate. I was raised in Minnesota, the state where aspiring television newscasters go to learn diction, for crying out loud.

In the interest of efficiency and progress, we've lost a lot of human contact in business. It's not pleasant to be a consumer. And it's only going to get worse as we continue to move to virtual business. We conduct webinars as a natural course of business and almost anything you need you can find online. There is no reason to meet people face-to-face anymore. Not even to sell real estate. You used to be able to walk into a store, speak with a sales rep about a product, touch and feel the product, maybe even test drive it. Not so anymore. In fact, you're lucky if the store even carries the product in stock.

I'm as guilty as anybody else. I'm showing property this weekend, and I'm not leaving the house. I have other commitments, so I am paying an associate to drive around my buyers and show them homes. They most likely will buy a Sacramento short sale. They need me for my analytical, investigative and negotiation skills -- they are relying on my 30-some years in the real estate business and extensive short sale background. I might not even see them at closing. Sending a mobile notary to sign docs is more convenient for a lot of people.

Agents might believe that the days of buying a home online will never happen, but I disagree. It's sad, and it's unfortunate. I still prefer human contact. But I do what the clients want. I let my clients decide. If they want a virtual relationship, I'll give it to them.

Photo: Big Stock Photo

Most of my friends would say I am a social butterfly. Probably because I regularly talk to a lot of people I don't know while pumping gas, dining out, or in the dressing room at Macy's, but those conversations fall short of what constitutes an actual friendship. I am friends with my clients, people I grew up with, neighbors, agents I work with, and yes, people I meet online. But I am not friends with the guys standing next to me at the popcorn counter at Tower Theatre in Land Park. Unless they want to buy or sell homes in Land Park, all I'm going to say is wrong door, dudes, men's restroom is over there.

So why is it that some people at social networking sites feel it is necessary to be my friend when I don't know them? How do they find my profile anyway?

I receive daily emails from such sites as LinkedIn and Facebook, and a host of others I never post on nor belong to asking me to be a friend or join some elite group. I don't have an inordinate amount of time to spend online. I am finishing my short sale book, working with buyers, taking listings, contributing articles to my homebuying site on About.com, and I simply do not have the time to figure out who these people are or why they want to be my friend.

Kris Berg wrote a cute blog about how she would like invitations for friendship on Facebook. Why don't these people go be friends with Kris? Why are they sending me emails?

The thing is if I don't know you, I'm clicking "ignore." It's nothing personal. To make it personal, you'd have to be my friend.

Photo: Big Stock Photo

The Short Sale, from Archer Ellison, Coming January 2009